Bookings - please note:
All enquiries about booking space at Wilbraham St Ninian's for events, activities or meetings should be made to the appropriate authorities within the Wilbraham St Ninian's congregation.
Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester is merely one of a number of tenants which rent space and office accommodation within the building and we are not able to deal with booking enquiries from organisations or individuals seeking space for gatherings or projects.
Contact details and booking arrangements for Wilbraham St Ninian's URC are given on their web site at:
The Easter Morning windows by Francis Spear
Francis Howard Spear ARCA, FRSA (1902-1979) is now recognised as a designer of stained glass which is notable for its beauty and innovative qualities.
His place of work was mainly Edgware in London and Reigate in Surrey, with his early glass being created at the Glass House, a purpose-built studio in Fulham run by Mary Lowndes and Alfred John Drury. He taught lithography and stained glass at the Royal College of Art, where he had also been a pupil under Martin Travers, and was recognised as a leading lithographer during the inter-war years, with several of his lithographs being held by the Devenish Collection.
He was responsible for stained glass in a number of locations in the Greater Manchester and surrounding area, including:
- St Paul, Astley Bridge, Bolton
- St Stephen, Bury
- St Mary the Virgin, Eccles, Salford
- St Andrew (Presbyterian), Heaton Chapel, Stockport
- Holy Angels, Manchester
- Birch-in-Rusholme Parish Church, Manchester
- St Mark (Presbyterian), Wythenshawe, Manchester
- St Cross, Clayton, Manchester
- St Mark (Presbyterian), Clayton, Manchester
- St Andrew, Radcliffe
- Manchester Grammar School
- St Clement, Hr Openshaw, Manchester
- Church of Christ, Burnage, Manchester
- Hope Chapel, Oldham
- Hospital Chapel, Wigan
- St Christopher's Nursing Home, Wigan
- Wilmslow Parish Church
- And, of course, the three panels in the Easter Morning window which was installed in the then St Ninian's Presbyterian Church (now Wilbraham St Ninian's United Reformed Church) during its construction between 1949 and 1951.
Note: Spear's life and work is celebrated in The Stained Glass of Francis Spear by Alan Brooks,
(ISBN: 978-0957222007) published in June 2012.
Wilbraham Saint Ninian's United Reformed Church
- our host church (www.wilbrahamstninians.com)
Partnership
We wish to express our sincere thanks for the warm welcome, remarkable hospitality, and genuine commitment to our ministry which have been the hallmarks of our relationship with our hosts.
Since we came here in August 2009, we have worked in partnership with the congregation, Elders and Minister of Wilbraham St Ninian's URC. We have occasional joint worship, joint social events and engage in mission together.
We are planning, for 2013, some joint Bible studies, a joint exploration of what mission may look like for us both, and to build on the excellent relationships we enjoy. Our MCC Board of Directors meet regularly with Wilbraham St Ninian's Elders, our ministers regularly preach in each others churches and meet regularly. We look for ever closer ways of working, witnessing and worshipping together.
We are truly blessed to be able to meet and worship in a building of great strength, simplicity and profound spiritual beauty, and to be doing this in partnership with a host congregation who value our presence alongside them in the field of Christian mission.
History
Wilbraham St Ninian's started life as a congregation within the Presbyterian Church of England when, after initially meeting in the Masonic Hall in Chorlton from 1903 onwards, the foundation stone on the old church building at the present site (now the Old Hall) was laid in September 1907 and the congregation of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Presbyterian Church moved to its new home in March 1908.
The church continued to grow in the early decades of the 20th century and to create a strong and vibrant identity for itself within the Presbyterian tradition and among the many Manchester residents who had been brought up as Presbyterian by virtue of Scottish family connections.
During the Second World War, the nearby Whalley Range Presbyterian Church was severely damaged by bombing in December 1940, and by July 1941 it had been agreed that the Whalley Range and Chorlton churches would amalgamate on the Chorlton site under the name of St Ninian's Presbyterian Church.
Over time, the need for more accommodation became apparent and this, coupled with a significant amount of War Damage compensation received from the government for the damage to the Whalley Range church, led to a decision in 1949 to build a new church, adjacent and connected to the existing building.
The new church opened for worship in November 1951 having been constructed at a cost of £14,198 by William Thorpe to the plans drawn up by architect Thomas Reive. (See panel below.)
The crowning glory of the beautiful new building were the three panels comprising the stained glass window which was installed in the south wall of the sanctuary by the highly reputed artist-craftsman Francis Spear (see sidebar).
It seems there was a debate whether the theme of the windows should be Easter Morning or Moses and the Burning Bush, but the Easter Morning theme was finally chosen.
In 1955, pressure on space for the various church organisations became evident once again, and the intention to build a manse on the site was abandoned in favour of constructing a new hall (still known as the New Hall) with a substantial kitchen area, at a cost of £5000.
In 1972 the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales came together to form a single denomination, the United Reformed Church.
As a result St Ninian's Presbyterian Church became St Ninian's United Reformed Church.
By 1978 the Elders of the Wilbraham Road (formerly Congregational) United Reformed Church and St Ninian's (formerly Presbyterian) United Reformed Church reached the conclusion that amalgamation of the two churches was the best survival plan for the two congregations which were geographically quite close to each other.
The decision to amalgamate was finally taken in 1985 when extensive dry rot was found at the Wilbraham Road church, and so St Ninians United Reformed Church became Wilbraham Saint Ninian's United Reformed Church - the name by which it is known today.
The present complex of buildings -
- the church,
- the Old Hall,
- the New Hall with its extensive kitchen facilities,
- and a range of smaller offices and meeting rooms,
- serves the community of Chorlton as a busy and popular venue for all kinds of activities virtually every day of the week, every week of the year.
But at its heart is a worshipping Christian community with a proud heritage, a distinguished history, and a vision of the Good News of Jesus, which have all resulted in the love and respect in which Wilbraham St Ninian's is held by all who are associated with it.
Chorlton-cum-Hardy Presbyterian Church 1904 - 1941
St Ninian's Presbyterian Church 1941 - 1972
St Ninian's United Reformed Church 1972 - 1985
Wilbraham St Ninian's United Reformed Church 1985 - present
With acknowledgment to "A distinct place in the community: the story of a Presbyterian church" by Roger Tomes (2004)
The Architect - Thomas Reive ARIBA, MIStructE
Described in business listings as "Thomas Reive (Chartered Architect), Stockport", Reive was born in Droylsden in 1887/8, the son of James and Catherine Reive, Scottish Presbyterians who had moved to Manchester in the early 1880's.
He seems to have started his professional career as assistant to the Bolton architects Bradshaw and Gass, and was working for them when he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in November 1915. He practised for some time in Rangoon, Burma during the inter-war years and returned to Britain, some time after his mother's death in Rangoon General Hospital in 1933, to a business address in Manchester. From 1949 his business address was in Stockport.
On 29 August 1938 he married Barbara Wilhelmina (Lena), the youngest daughter of the Rev John Spark, at Inverness. After a long life together, Thomas died at his home in Gatley on March 18 1970. He had been a member of the congregation for many years, and a choir member, at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Heaton Moor, Stockport where the funeral service was held on March 20th 1970 prior to interment alongside his father at Prestbury Church.
During his professional life, Reive drew on his Presbyterian heritage and credentials to undertake some significant projects for the Presbyterian Trustees. He also demonstrated a strong preference for the stained glass of Francis Spear (see left-hand panel) as a major feature in his buildings. Indeed, there is perhaps an argument to be made that the parallel development of the needs of the Presbyterian Church of England, the architectural career of Reive, and the artistic career of Spear, all spanning the period of the 1930s to the 1960s, came together to create something quite distinctive. The result, in the Manchester area, seems to be his legacy of his 'three graces': St Andrew's, Heaton Moor; St Ninian's, Chorlton; and St Mark's Wythenshawe - all showing Reive's unmistakable design, and all containing major glass work by Francis Spear.
Records of Reive's projects are rather patchy, but his significant church works appear to be (original names):
- 1936 - St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Heaton Moor, Stockport.
- 1936 - Trinity Presbyterian Church, Plymouth.
- 1938 - (Proposed) Presbyterian Church and Sunday School, Pendleton, Salford. (Thought never to have been built.)
- 1949 - St Ninian's Presbyterian Church, Chorlton, Manchester.
- 1952 - (Suggested modifications to) John Knox Church, Stepney, London. (Reive prepared sketches but was not appointed architect.)
- 1958 - (Proposed improvements to) Presbyterian Church, Wolverhampton.
- 1958 - St Mark's Presbyterian Church, Wythenshawe, Manchester.
- 1962 - Church of Christ, Burnage Lane, Manchester. (Demolished 2006)
Note: St Mark's, Wythenshawe and Church of Christ, Burnage are included on the basis that their design is very much in Reive's style, were built during his working period, and both contain(ed) glass by Spear. Documentary evidence of Reive's involvement is yet to be confirmed.
Information provided by, and reproduced by permission of, Greater Manchester Churches Preservation Society.
